1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrophotographic photosensitive member including a photoconductive layer which is composed chiefly of amorphous silicon.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Electrophotographic photosensitive members which are composed chiefly of amorphous silicon are disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,394,426, 4,359,514, 4,414,319, 4,418,132, 4,423,133, etc. Such photosensitive members have various advantages over those composed chiefly of selenium or cadmium sulfide in that they have higher resistance to heat and abrasion, are harmless and have higher photosensitivity. Furthermore these members have the advantage that they are usable for copying machines and intelligent copying machines including a laser printer become of sufficient sensitivity to light of long wavelengths.
When amorphous silicon is used for electrophotographic photosensitive members, the photoconductive layer must have a sufficient thickness so as to have a high dark resistivity and to obtain an amount of charges required for the developing process. The photosensitive member has a surface layer for preventing the flow of surface charges from the surface of the member into the photoconductive layer. The surface layer is made of a material composed chiefly of amorphous silicon and containing nitrogen, carbon or oxygen. When the surface layer contains a larger amount of such element, the surface layer is likely to have greater ability to retain the surface charges and enhanced surface strength but reduced photosensitivity.
Accordingly antinomic phenomena occur in that increased ability to retain the surface charges results in reduced photosensitivity whereas an improvement in the photosensitivity entails lower ability to retain surface charges. Thus, it has been impossible to improve both the photosensitivity and the charge retaining ability.
On the other hand, there is a need to block charges that would flow from the substrate into the photoconductive layer to thereby enable the surface of the photosensitive member to retain for an extended period of time the charges given thereto by corona discharge. Interposed between the substrate and the photoconductive layer for this purpose is a blocking layer for preventing flow of carriers (electrons in the case of positive charging or holes in the case of negative charging) from the substrate to the photoconductive layer and for permitting the carriers produced in the photoconductive layer by electromagnetic irradiation to flow into the substrate.
When the conventional photosensitive member is to be charged positively, the blocking layer is prepared from amorphous silicon with boron added thereto, while when the member is to be charged negatively, the blocking layer is prepared from amorphous silicon with phosphorus added thereto. The content of the boron or phosphorus is uniform in the direction of thickness of the blocking layer. Accordingly the layer has a flat energy level.
The higher the additive content of the blocking layer, the greater is the ability thereof to block carriers from the substrate, but the inflow of carriers from the photoconductive layer is then impeded to some extent resulting in lower photosensitivity. However, if the additive content of the blocking layer is low, carriers are likely to flow into the photoconductive layer from the substrate to decrease the charge retention period. Thus, the photosensitive member exhibits the antinomic properties, failing to retain charges for a prolonged period of time and have high photosensitivity.